Watford 2 West Ham 0: Ighalo keeps on lighting up top flight as Hornets sting Hammers

The Nigerian international was a flop in Italy but has been a mega hit ever since he joined Watford.

The lanky hit-man has scored more goals this year than anyone else in the top four divisions and took his 2015 tally to 23 with a double-barrelled blast that blew West Ham out of a Champions League spot.

Slaven Bilic’s side have won at Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Crystal Palace but they had absolutely no answer to the pace and power of the 26-year-old.

Boss Bilic was so angry with the first half performance he hauled off both Manuel Lanzini and Victor Moses at half time.

But if he thought his changes would blunt Ighalo’s threat he was way off as it took Watford’s top scorer only three minutes to double his tally.

Bilic tore a strip off his players after their woeful display, admitting: “I told the guys it was unacceptable but it happens and let’s make sure it’s a one-off. It was a collective bad day.

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“You are going to lose games but we weren’t good apart from 10 minutes. We learnt a lesson but I see no reason why we should not come back the way we played before.

“Watford got what they deserved and got the three points.

“I have more complaints about the way we played than the red card, we gave them a hand and we helped them.

“In the Premier League you can lose games and you can live with a defeat if your team gave everything but we didn’t. We have to make sure this was a one-off.

“The red card didn’t affect the outcome, the game was over and the ref can justify the red card but it wasn’t reckless, it wasn’t full speed, it wasn’t dangerous, it was just unnecessary, out of frustration, and the referee didn’t have to give it.

“We are not happy because he is going to miss three games and for that kind of foul it’s too much.”

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He’s now scored seven times this season and is the Hornets’ all-time Premier League leading marksman!

They must be kicking themselves back in Italy where Ighalo’s five years on Udinese’s books saw him restricted to just six appearances, five of them off the bench!

And even when he went out on loan to Serie A Cesena he only got 26 minutes on the park in four months.

No-one would ever recognise him now as he leads Watford’s fight to stay in the top-flight after last year’s play-off promotion.

And Watford fans must be over the moon that their club is also under the control of the Pozzo family who also own both Udinese and Granada.

He’s clearly more suited to England than either Italy or Spain – and don’t West Ham know it!

He made the most of a horrible mistake by Andy Carroll when he was back trying to defend a free-kick.

The striker initially had an air shot trying to clear Nathan Ake’s ballooned header and then tried to be too clever and was robbed by the full back.

Ighalo, waiting in the middle, redirected the driven cross over the line via a deflection off Aaron Cresswell.

If there was a slice of luck about the first one, there was nothing flukey about his second. Ighalo cashed in on another defensive error, this time by James Tomkins, controlled the loose ball, turned and hammered his shot beyond Adrian.

Carroll’s personal Halloween nightmare at Vicarage Road carried on when he scuffed a shot wide and then fell over his own feet when he had a simple tap-in after sub Enner Valencia’s shot came back off the woodwork.

And to complete the Hammers’ misery, James Collins was red-carded six minutes from time, after hacking down Ighalo who had to be helped off.

Hornets’ manager Quique Flores said: “It was the team’s best performance this season.

“We had a plan and the boys worked to the plan.

“Ighalo is a wonderful man because he decided to stay here and is a very important player for us.

“He had to make the decision some months ago and could have gone but he liked his football here.”